Wild Bound

May 2007 Archives from Dandelions and Daydreams

I love spontaneity. That being said, It’s no surprise that last Friday night when Brenton came home in an out-of-sorts-mood we threw two sleeping bags in the back of the car, loaded a cooler with ham, cheese, and bread. Fifteen minutes after the idea struck, we were on the road and headed towards Montana for a night of camping in the back of the car.
Any good adventure has its setbacks. Our obstacles proved to be trains and red lights. You know, those things are nothing but annoyances when you are trying to run away from civilization. I thought I was going to pull my hair out before we got out of town.

As we headed East on towards Montana on Highway 200, I snapped a picture of the green Monarch Mountains. This was taken right before the rain started pouring down. We kept on driving east chasing a patch of blue sky that we didn’t actually find until the next morning. It was getting dark and we had driven about 100 miles, so we found a national forest road that headed north somewhere past Thompson Falls, MT.

The road caught Brenton’s attention because it headed up into a valley between two mountains. He was thinking of how much fun it would be to fly into the valley. While he was thinking of airplanes and flying, I was keeping my eyes open for a place to pull in and park for the night.

It’s still pretty early in the season up here for camping. Most of the parks will open on Memorial Day weekend. We actually came across several campgrounds that were still closed for the season. With no worries, we kept on driving. The national forest roads are just dotted with campsites along the road. These campsites are little more than a parking space and a fire ring, but they do the job. we found one beside a nice river in the valley between two mountains.

At this point I should probably mention that we didn’t bring any matches or lighters or flashlights or a tent (of course I brought the important stuff–a camera and accessories). I scrounged around the car a while and found a flashlight buried deep down in the glove compartment. We had actually planned from the start to sleep in the car, but we hadn’t planned out the logistics of it.

I had thought of putting the back seats down and sleeping with our feet in the trunk, but I dismissed the idea. As we were trying to figure out how to sleep Brenton suggested folding the back seats forward and sleeping with our feet in the trunk. It took a little extra padding and wiggling around to get comfortable, but sleeping in the trunk of the car was definitely not the most uncomfortable sleep I have ever had while camping.

The next morning we planned on having sandwiches for breakfast, but there is nothing like a hot breakfast after a cold night of camping. We did what any logical person would do after heading out on a spontaneous camping trip. We headed north on the national forest road into uncharted territory.

The road followed the Thompson river. Any road that follows a river snakes back and forth incessantly. There were places where three roads ran side by side just ten feet apart. I thought that the road crew could have planned that a bit better. I was getting hungrier and hungrier until I finally gave in and had a ham sandwich. Brenton on the other hand was still holding out for a stack of pancakes.

We finally came out of national forest about 40 miles East of Libby Montana. By this time I was hoping we would have enough gas to get us into town. Brenton was easy going as always.

About a mile outside of Libby we picked up a hitch hiker. Brenton asked the man if he knew where there was a good place to get a bite to eat. The hitch hiker recommended Torgys. In fact that’s where the gentleman was headed himself.

That was a good breakfast! Brenton had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and coffee. I had eggs, bacon, and toast (and of course coffee). The food was just right. The coffee a bit weak (but then I like it so you can stand a fork up in it). Overall the price wasn’t too bad at Torgy’s Restaurant. I think my plate was $4 and Brenton’s was $5.

Back on the road we drove home to Sandpoint where we rounded out our camping weekend with opening day of the Farmer’s Market, sighting in my rifle, and hauling horse manure in for the garden. At the end of the weekend, It was a good weekend.

During the whole trip we kept a count of wildlife sightings. Here are the totals and my conclusions:

White Tail Deer: 36

Mule Deer: 3

Black Tail Deer: 1

Bald Eagles: 8 (including one juvenile who didn’t have the characteristic white head yet)

Geese: WAY TOO MANY TO COUNT

Bear: 1–in my dreams, no really I dreamt about a bear.

Conclusion: if Bald Eagles are endangered, the moose must be extinct because we didn’t see any of them.

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Digging up more old posts, May 2007

Last weekend was paddlefest. Paddlefest is when Full Spectrum Tours brings out kayaks for a free test day on Lake Pend Orielle. At least it’s free until you buy one.Brenton and I have been dreaming of buying a kayak for about a year and a half. We had thought about it and debated it, and came to the conclusion that a hard body kayak just wasn’t quite what we wanted. We wanted a kayak that we could pack in and out to remote alpine lakes and that we could easily carry in the car. After a lot of consideration, we decided to hold out for a folding kayak like the ones offered by Folbot. But the price for a folding kayak starts out at about $2000 so that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

We walked down the beach admiring the various kayaks that were available to be tested. There were probably 70 different kayaks of various brands and styles for us to try out. We didn’t test nearly all of the. At the end of the row was a kayak that made me stop and look again.

I have never really been impressed with inflatable kayaks. They all look like beach toys to me, but when I saw the Advanced Elements Advanced Frame Convertible I knew I was looking at the solution to our kayak problem.

Here’s the stats about this little beauty:

SPECIFICATIONS:

Length: 15’

Width: 32”

Weight: 56 lbs (25 kg)

MaxWt.: 550 lbs (249 kg)

Color: Red/Gray

The bottom is made out of the same PVC tarpulin that is used to make white water rafts. There are 6 air chambers. The two main chambers both go all the way around the kayak so you would stay afloat even if one of them punctures. The main air chambers are protected by three layers so a puncture is pretty unlikely. The seats clip in. There are three sets of clips so you can convert it from a tandem to a single kayak. Set up and take down took us about 10 minutes a piece on the first try. I’m sure we will only get faster too (in comparison, my friends with solid body kayaks say it takes them about 15 minutes to get the kayak on and off their roof racks). And I can fit the kayak, paddles, and PFDs all in the truck of our car along with two sleeping bags and a cooler. That’s some sweet stuff. We’ve been out 3 times since we bought it. I would buy it all over again.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Image via Wikipedia

Another Post from my blog archives, May 2007.

With spring still being a bit temperamental, Brenton and I are taking every opportunity we can to get out and about when the weather cooperates. Yesterday the high was in the upper 70’s so we went out for a paddle in our new Advanced Elements Advanced Frame Convertible Kayak. We drove to Schweitzer Cutoff Rd and put in Sand creek at the bridge. Sand creek is a fairly well behaved creek with just enough speed to keep you moving (at least until you get close to Lake Pend Orielle).

Right beside the bridge is a nice parking area that can easily accommodate two cars. We were not the first to think of putting in there. A truck had already parked and was long gone down the creek by the time we got there. It turned out that our fellow boater was one of Brenton’s Co-workers, but that’s another story.

We scouted the best path to portage before we inflated the kayak. There’s nothing worse than getting all set up to go only to find out that you can’t get into the water because the bank is too steep. We had to hug the fence a bit to carry the kayak down to the waters edge, but we made it. The bank was a bit steep.

I went into the water first and WOW it was cold. We are still getting some spring melt from the mountains. The rocks were slick with alge and I thought I was going to take a swim once or twice as we were trying to get all situated.

We managed to get into the boat and head down the creek with no major events. Brenton paddled most of the way, I was just there to help around a few rough spots. It’s a good route for inexperienced paddlers, a few shallow places, a little bit of a current, but nothing too intense. Mostly the route is just flat, slow moving water.

It’s spring around here so we saw lots of goslings and ducklings. I have to say the ducklings are cuter than the goslings. We saw a long boardwalk along sand creek that was getting pretty old and decrepit.

As I was looking at the boardwalk, I thought about another time in Sandpoint, ID. This town has always revovled around the lake and water. Whether it was the timber industry or the tourism industry, Lake Pend Orielle is at the heart of Sandpoint.

Popularity: 26% [?]

I Found this post in my other blog archives, Dandelions and Daydreams from June 2007.

God must have had Heaven in mind when he designed North Idaho. Living here is like living in a playground. If you like to hike, bike, hunt, fish, ski, sail, camp, or do anything outdoors, North Idaho is a great place to call home.If you like art museums don’t come here. We like the great outdoors.

On Friday, I took off for the lake right after lunch. The sun was shining and a nice wind was blowing.I put our inflatable kayak out on Lake Pend Orielle and paddled out to the middle of the lake. For the next two hours, I let the boat drift while I was reading and working on a writing project. Next time I plan on writing on the lake, I think I will bring my MP3 player/voice recorder.It’s hard to write when the waves are rocking the boat.

The next day, Brenton and I decided to paddle the thorofare to Upper Priest Lake. Upper Priest Lake is a scenic wilderness area with no roads in or out and no houses built on the shoreline. The three mile paddle from Beaver Creek Campground to Upper Priest Lake took us about 1 1/2 hours, but we were not in a hurry at all. In a few weeks, we are going to take some people camping at Upper Priest Lake, and we wanted to check out the sites.

The camping is primitive. There are four campgrounds that offer fire rings, vault toilets (AKA outhouses), bear boxes, and not much else. The view is perfect, and I really hope we can do some stargazing when we camp up there.

This kayak trip was special because it was the first time I was brave enough to bring my camera along. I intend to buy a waterproof camera eventually. For now, I double bagged the camera with zip-lock bags, and hoped it would survive the trip. The risk was well rewarded.

We saw quite a few ducklings swimming. On a sandbar, there was a congregation of Monarch butterflies, but the real highlight of the trip came on the paddle back down the thorofare. As we slipped around a corner, a moose broke through the brush on the bank not more than 50 feet in front of our kayak. Brenton held on to the bank while I was taking pictures. A minute later, her baby came out into the water with her and began nursing. We floated there, on the opposite bank, for probably ten minutes watching this pair as they went about their evening feedings. All too soon, we had to paddle on down the thorofare so we could get off the lake before darkness fell. We had to paddle across open water for about 1/4 of a mile at the North end of Priest Lake. The wind was headed right down the lake, so the waves had picked up speed and height. We went splashing over the waves and were quite thankful that our Advanced Elements Kayak is very stable. We took out at Beaver Creek Campground, where we had put in. At the end of the day we were both exhausted and hungry, but grinning from ear to ear.

Popularity: 27% [?]

At some point in your life, you will probably have to admit that you don’t really know anything.This is me, standing up and admitting, I don’t really know anything about backpacking.

For years I have loved the thought of backpacking.  I have dreamed of doing the Appalachian trail as a thru-hike.  I have talked about how much I love hiking, but I have never been on a backpacking trip.

I always thought that a backpacking trip had to be at least a week long.  I tried to plan such a trip but always ended up overwhelmed by the thought.  I didn’t have the “right gear.”  I wanted to buy one more thing to lighten my pack.  Heck, until last November, I didn’t even have a pack!

Last winter we bought backpacks thinking we would be able to do winter camping.  More honesty in the post–that was a dumb idea.  Mercifully, everytime we planned that first camping trip, something else came up to keep us at home.  With a little more experience I think that newbies on a budget should not try winter camping for a while.  In our defense, we were planning on doing it as car camping so if things got too rough we could ditch.

This summer we had great plans to do some weekenders on the Idaho Centennial trail.  B and I dream of hiking that one in sections while we are living in North Idaho.

This spring, April 3 to be exact, we discovered that there was a huge bend in the road ahead of us and all our plans changed.  The baby is due November 26.  We still had high hopes of spending time kayaking and backpacking, and I had no idea that morning sickness would last all the way until week 24.  Our few summer outings (on days I felt good) always resulted in 2 days of nausea and sleeping just to recover.  Our plans continued to change.

This past week, B and I talked and decided that we couldn’t really consider ourselves backpackers until we had at least done an overnight trip.  We also decided that we didn’t have to plan a big expedition trip to really be backpacking.  Just going and doing is enough.  That was Wednesday.

Friday I bought a few extras while I was out grocery shopping.  I hoped that Saturday would take us to the trail for our first backpacking trip.  I had to wait until Sunday, but I was not disappointed.

At 6 months pregnant and probably in the worst shape of my life, I can honestly say that I have done an overnight backpacking trip.  One trip taught us a lot of stuff.  I wrote most of it down in the field so I could remember and blog about it.  The hike was 2.5 miles one way, and I almost didn’t make it back to the trail head.  Anyone who has ever been pregnant will understand when I say that I never knew my calf muscles could cramp that way before.

Today I am tired and sore but satisfied beyond measure.  I will probably require a week to recover from the trip, but we did it!  What’s more, I would do it again–even at 6 months pregnant.

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